Planet Soho:Support for running a small business

A year and half back I was recruited by a Stockholm based consulting company to start their development operations in Mumbai. Amid all the usual challenges of operating in Mumbai -really expensive real estate, landlords out to cheat you, registering a company, etc – I also realized that a 5 people operation is not an important customer for anyone.

Imagine a stationary vendor telling you that it will take a few hours to deliver 10 pens or 20 DVDs or a printer can only visit your office when he has to meet other customers in the area. Or worse, finding out that supplier for whom you are an important customer is a really really bad supplier. Well, I am trying to get around this problem by paying cash instead of the standard 30 day credit period. However, a solution might be at hand: PlanetSoho.

It’s a great service which enables small businesses to get various services, deals, and tools which are typically available only to large businesses. Planet Soho (small office home office) buys services or makes deals with various suppliers thus creating scale for their clients. For instance, 30% off on FedEx services in North America, and even ticketing services in Mumbai. Most importantly, PlanetSoho also offers it’s users a platform (Soho OS) for storing documents, inventory management, lead management, invoicing and billing, etc. So if you are a freelancer or are self employed, this might be especially useful.

PlanetShoto now has over 1 millon businesses signed up, including a significant number of users in South Africa and India!!!So if you are today where I was a year and half back, you should consider signing up. I do hope they start local India operations at the earliest – I can attest that we really e need something like this in India.